Month: November 2008

I went shopping at Target this weekend and had an interesting encounter with a cashier. Now, before you think that I’m complaining, actually the cashier was on my side. In addition to the gifts I bought, I decided to get some cards. I usually get some nondescript cards that cover any winter holiday that one might celebrate. But I have a couple of obnoxiously religious in-laws that always send me cards that are almost religious tracts.

This time I decided to get some cards that have a very large “Happy Holidays” greeting on them. These cards will go specifically to a couple of relatives and especially to a neighbor that kept sending us horribly paranoid anti-Obama emails before the election. Even after we asked to be taken off his email list and after we had retaliated back with anti-Palin emails.

Target had a huge selection of Happy Holidays cards for me to select from and I decided on the largest, most obnoxiously Happy Holidays cards I could find. The cashier rang up my items and grinned when she saw the large, obnoxious Happy Holidays cards. “For someone special?” she asked.

“Oh, definitely.” I replied. We both laughed. My opening salvo in the War on Christmas.

Sen. Chris Buttars wants Utah’s Legislature to declare its opposition to the “war on Christmas.”

The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic “holidays.”

“It would encourage the use of ‘Merry Christmas,'” Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. “I’m sick of the Christmas wars — we’re a Christian nation and ought to use the word.”

Several fellow lawmakers he wouldn’t yet name support his effort, added Buttars, who has a long history of championing the socially conservative agenda of the Utah Eagle Forum.

In 2005, right-wing pundit Bill O’Reilly took on the same fight, characterizing the so-called war on Christmas as part of a secular progressive agenda that would open the door to legalized drugs, abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage.

One advertising executive thinks the Buttars message crosses the line.

“I’m kind of flabbergasted that there is even such a proposal,” said Dave Newbold, president of Salt Lake City-based Richter7 Advertising and Public Relations.

“We may be primarily Christian but that doesn’t mean that you force your language or beliefs on anybody,” Newbold added. “We live in a multicultural area and it’s right and proper to be sensitive to the various cultures.”

What a prick. Doesn’t he have other, more important things to do as a state senator than to worry about what greeting store clerks give to their customers?

The Center for Inquiry West in Hollywood has been used as a voting location the last couple of years. According to the e-newsletter from CFI West (dated 5 November 2008):

An estimated 2,500 voters filed through the Center yesterday to cast their votes at the three precincts housed there for the historic election. Lines of voters started forming before the polls opened at 7 a.m., and then snaked through the patio and down Hollywood Boulevard throughout the morning. Poll workers, who began setting up their voting equipment at 6 a.m., worked steadily until the polls closed at 8 p.m. By that time, a record-breaking number of more than 80 percent of those eligible voted in Los Angeles County.

With a parking lot, handicapped ramp and large lobby space, the Center has been sought after and used for voting during the past several elections. We at the Center are happy to provide space for such an important community event.

The City of Rancho Cucamonga pressured General Outdoor Advertising to remove the above billboard after complaints from “concerned” assholes. Stuart Bechman from Atheists United in Los Angeles is calling for an apology from the City of Rancho Cucamonga for violating the constitutional rights of General Outdoor Advertising and its customers.

“This is a serious overstep by the city over the boundaries of the First Amendment,” stated Stuart Bechman, President, Atheists United. “It’s hard to imagine a more innocuous statement of non-belief. But even this was too much for political leaders who are clearly in the pockets of some religious leaders to suppress any expression of views that diverge from the orthodox line.”

“City leaders have demonstrated their clear bias towards protecting and providing special privileges to their favored religious beliefs, in clear violation of the California and United States Constitutions. I would like to think that few Christians are so insecure in their faith as to support this action.”

Atheists United and other civil-rights organizations expect an apology to all freethinkers from the city and an admission of error on their part; and if they refuse, for the California Attorney General’s office to open an investigation on the illegal actions taken by the city.

Hemant Mehta is also posting about this story. According to some of the comments, FRFF and Atheists United may be suing the City of Rancho Cucamonga. I hope they do. The city needs a severe spanking.

It is time that we educate them. They’ll keep doing it as long as we let them get away with it.

I don’t think that AU and FFRF should ask for an apology, they should sue immediately and not settle. At the very least, the Rancho Cucamonga City Administrators should pay for restoring the sign, pay for the days that it was down, pay for the AU and FFRF’s legal fees and then issue an apology.

The Atheist Bus campaign in London by the Atheist Campaign, Richard Dawkins, and the British Humanist Association seems to really tick off the Rev. Evan Cockshaw. He created a website, There Probably Is, supposedly to explore both sides of the issue. The site is filled with pretty lame stories (emotional appeals) by fellow Christians trying to explain why they are Christians. There are no dissenting opionions offered on the Reverend’s site. So much for dissenting views.

PZ Myers wrote a scathing post about Rev. Cockshaw’s site, thereby causing the Rev to make an appearence in the comments. What a whiny crybaby. Apparently, Cockshaw filled the search flags for his site with tags for atheists and agnostics. Then he became pissed when atheists found his website and decided to play. You’d think that Cockshaw would have expected this, especially if he was censoring inputs to his site.

Where’s Moses when you need him? And his 10 commandments? This little adoration of the Golden Calf is led by a woman named Cindy Jacobs. Cindy Jacobs, according to CBN, is a co-founder of something called General’s International (links to the Joels Army movement?).

This event happened on October 29 last month. I saw this posted on Pharyngula, but the name sounded familiar. I went over on Talk2Action and there were several stories about her, her friends, and their antics.

Cindy Jacobs is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement within the larger Charismatic Christian community. NAR churches are extremely cult-like and controlling of their members.

These churches preach a warped version of the Prosperity Gospel. Unlike the general Charismatic or Pentecostal churches, NAR churches preach that Christians need to grab power in this world and control everything in order to bring about the return of Christ. According to Bruce Wilson:

As the top leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, which extensive evidence suggests is Sarah Palin’s chosen religious and political movement, C. Peter Wagner proclaimed, on June 21, 2006, that “God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God,” and Wagner declared, threateningly, “the enemies’ camp will be plundered.”

How very Old Testament. Are they going to spare the female virgin non-believers in order to make sex slaves of them? I think death would be preferable than being a sex slave to a toupee clad televangelist. Ewwwwww!

Cindy Jacobs wants to pray for wordly goods and power at the Golden Bull on Wall Street. Has she even read her Bible? According to CBN, Cindy thinks that she can control God and change the stock market in her favor.

For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29,2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

Looks like Christian spell casting to me. And these are the same people that are worried about witches casting spells. Looks like a case of projection to me. And what happens when her or her follower’s prayers aren’t answered? Will they grow tired of waiting? Will they “release” us non-believers to God (kill us) and take our property?

Specialist Jeremy Hall is ending his lawsuit against the Department of Defense as he will shortly lose standing to pursue the lawsuit by completing his enlistment in the Army. He is finally able to leave the Army after all the hell he has endured since standing up for himself. Best of luck in the future, Jeremy.